Where do we go from here?

In the state of Kerala, leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, T P Chandrasekharan, who was expelled from CPI(M) a few years back, was attacked and killed by unidentified assailants. According to police, 50-year-old Chandrasekharan was attacked by assailants who came by a car while he was riding a motorcycle alone. Country-made bombs were hurled at him and when he fell off the motorcycle, he was hacked to death with sharp weapons. His face was completely disfigured. Sadly, this is not the first incident of its kind in Kerala. The true criminals behind similar incidents in the past have not been identified either. Arresting a low level thug does not strike at the heart of the problem. The “big fish” behind such crimes are almost never held accountable and the problem of extreme, brutal, and barbaric violence just continues to grow unchecked. If this is the state of politics in India’s most literate state, what hope does this hold for the rest of the country?

Move up north to India’s capital, and an RTI activist, Ravinder Balwani, was killed after a mysterious hit-and-run incident. He now joins the ever-growing list of slain RTI activists. Take the case of Shehla Masood, another RTI activist, who was gunned down last August. The investigations continue but there is no closure in sight.